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IMPRESSIONS 


THE  Sioux  TRIBES 


IN  1882. 


First  Principles  in  the  Indian  Question, 


HENRY  S.  PANCOAST. 


PHILADELPHIA : 
ALLEN,  LANE  &  SCOTT'S  POINTING  HOUSE, 

Nos.  229-231  South  Fifth  Street, 

1883. 


IMPRBSSIONS 


OF 


THE  Sioux  TRIBES 

IN    1882, 


WITH 


SOME  FIRST  PRINCIPLES  IN  THE  INDIAN  QUESTION, 


HENRY  S.iPANCOAST. 


Justitia  est  constans  et  perpetua  voluntas  jus  suum  cuique  tribuendi. 
Honeste  vivere  ;  aUerum  non  Ixdere  ;  jus  suum  cuique  tribuere. — JUSTINIAN. 

States  or  bodies  politic,  are  to  be  considered  as  moral  persons,  having  a  pub 
lic  will,  capable  and  free  to  do  right  and  wrong,  inasmuch  as  they  are  collections 
of  individuals,  each  of  whom  carries  with  him  into  the  service  of  the  community 
the  same  binding  law  of  morality  and  religion  which  ought  to  control  his  con 
duct  in  private  life. — JAMES  KENT. 


PHILADELPHIA : 
ALLEN,  LANE  &  SCOTT'S  PRINTING  HOUSE, 

Nos.  229-231  South  Fifth  Street. 
1883. 


INTRODUCTION. 


THE  following  is  a  simple,  and  I  trust  faithful  record  of 
some  things  which  impressed  me  most  strongly  in  a  recent 
visit  to  a  few  of  the  Sioux  Reservations  of  Dakota.  Its 
excuse  for  being,  is  that  it  may  help  some  to  a  better  under 
standing  of  the  disposition  and  condition  of  the  Indians, 
and  perhaps  excite  an  interest  in  the  question  of  their  right 
treatment,  which  is  now,  more  imperatively  than  ever, 
demanding  an  answer  of  the  nation.  These  scattered  im 
pressions  of  mine  are  of  interest  chiefly,  or  only,  in  con 
nection  with  this  Indian  question ;  but  as  they  were  put 
down  with  no  thought  of  publishing  them  as  an  Indian 
pamphlet,  I  venture  to  supplement  them  with  a  few  general 
facts. 

What  are  the  essential  elements  in  the  Indian  problem  ? 

We  have  in  the  midst  of  our  rapidly  growing  Western 
civilization  a  foreign  race.  A  race  of  another  language, 
another  color,  another,  but  uncertain,  origin.  A  race  widely 
diverse  from  all  the  others  that  quietly  melt  into  our  mixed 
population,  and  but  partially  reclaimed  from  its  original 
wildness  and  ferocity.  This  people  is  comparatively  insig 
nificant  numerically,  numbering,  according  to  the  last  cen 
sus  (1882),  but  262,366  ;*  it  is  scattered  in  forty-nine  reser- 
tions  over  our  Western  States  and  Territories,  and  so  broken 
and  dependent  on  the  Government  as  to  be  no  longer  for 
midable.  Out  of  this  262,366,  the  five  tribes  in  the  Indian  Ter 
ritory,  numbering  in  all  some  sixty  thousand,  are  practically 
civilized  and  self-supporting.  The  Cherokees  have,  for  years, 
had  their  own  government,  with  its  regular  divisions  :  leg- 

*  Report  of  Indian  Commissioner  for  1882,  page  14. 


islative,  executive,  and  judicial.  These  tribes  have  numer 
ous  schools  and  churches,  and  are  extensive  cattle  raisers. 
The  other  Indians  are  in  different  stages  of  the  struggle 
towards  civilization,  from  the  fifteen  thousand  four  hun 
dred  and  thirty -four  Indians  not  under  the  control  of  agents 
and  confined  to  no  reservation,  to  tribes  like  the  Christian 
and  industrious  Sioux,  farming  their  lands  at  Santee. 

In  attempting  to  seize  the  salient  features  of  this  ques 
tion  nothing,  perhaps,  stands  out  more  strongly  than  the 
absence  of  intercourse  between  the  Indians  and  our  people ; 
the  isolation  of  the  Indian  on  his  reservation.  The  reserva 
tion  is  an  island  of  darkness  ;  on  it  the  Indian  is  an  alien  in 
the  midst  of  our  national  life.  Now  it  is  apparent  that  this 
sharp  line  between  them  and  us  is  due,  not  exclusively  to 
the  great  race  differences,  although,  of  course,  largely  a 
result  of  them,  but  also  to  the  Indians'  peculiar  position  be 
fore  the  law. 

The  early  colonists  treated  the  Indians  as  separate,  in 
dependent  nations.  This  was  not  so  much  a  policy  as  a 
necessity,  the  whites  at  that  time  being  weak  and  scat 
tered,  while  the  Indian  tribes  were  organized  and  strong. 
Their  position  after  the  Revolution  under  our  Govern 
ment  was  substantially  the  same.  While  in  Canada  the 
Indian  was  an  individual  subject  of  the  Crown,  under  the 
protection  and  liable  to  the  punishment  of  the  general  law, 
in  the  United  States  a  policy  directly  opposite  was  pursued. 
We  continued  to  treat  with  them  at  arms'  length,  as  auto- 
nomic  tribes,  yet  denied  them  certain  privileges  usually 
considered  inseparable  to  national  life.  We  recognized  in 
them  but  a  usufructuary  right  to  land,  or  only  a  title  by 
occupancy ;  the  fee,  or  actual  title,  "  being  either  in  the 
United  States  or  in  some  one  of  the  several  States."*  Pur 
chasers  from  them  could,  of  course,  acquire  only  this  Indian 
title.  But  although  the  tribes  had  merely  this  right  of 

*  8  Opin.  Atty.  Gen.,  255. 


occupancy,  our  Supreme  Court  held  that  they  could  not 
be  deprived  of  it  except  by  their  own  consent. 

In  the  well-known  case  of  The  Cherokee  Nation  vs.  Georgia* 
it  was  said,  "  The  Indians  are  acknowledged  to  have  an  un 
questionable  and  therefore  unquestioned  right  to  the  lands 
they  occupy  until  that  right  shall  be  extinguished  by  a  volun 
tary  cession  to  the  Government."  Yet,  although  judicially 
declared  to  have  this  right,  practically  it  was  often  ques 
tioned,  or,  at  any  rate,  disregarded  by  the  people  and  by  the 
Executive.  Our  refusal  in  1831  to  allow  a  tribe  to  maintain 
an  action  in  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  was  a 
conclusive  negation  of  this  theoretical  right.  It  became  no 
right  except  in  the  forum  of  conscience  when  we  took  away 
the  only  remedy  except  war.  Tribal  standing  in  our  courts 
was  denied  them,  because  they  were  not  considered  as  for 
eign  States  in  the  sense  in  which  these  words  are  used  in 
the  clause  of  the  Constitution  giving  to  such  States  a  right 
to  sue.  They  were  "  domestic  dependent  nations,"  "  look 
ing  to  our  Government  for  protection,  and  relying  upon  its 
kindness  and  power."  f  And  thus  while  on  the  pages  of  our 
Reports  we  find  judicial  declarations  of  the  rights  of  the  In 
dian,  and  many  humane  and  admirable  sentiments  as  to  the 
way  he  should  be  treated,  on  the  pages  of  our  histories  we 
can  find  little  but  his  wrongs. 

This  policy  of  treating  with  the  Indian  tribes  as  separate 
nations  was  continued  until  1871.  In  that  year  a  statute 
was  passed,  declaring  that  "  No  Indian  nation  or  tribe  with 
in  the  territory  of  the  United  States  shall  be  acknowledged 
as  an  independent  nation,  tribe,  or  power,  with  whom  the 
United  States  may  contract  by  treaty. J 

While  since  this  statute  we  have  ceased  to  consider  them 
as  nations  (in  many  respects  independent),  able  by  the  dig- 

*  5  Pet.,  1. 

t  Cherokee  Na.  vs.  Georgia,  sup. 

t  Rev.  Stat.  U.  S.,  page  366,  section  2079. 


G 

nity  of  that  nationality  to  treat  with  the  United  States  as 
an  equal  power,  we  have  yet  retained  the  policy  of  regard 
ing  them  as  tribes,  or  bodies  of  men,  and  as  tribes  have  con 
tinued  to  contract  with  them.  Their  present  legal  position 
is  a  unique  one.  They  are  not  citizens,  nor  do  the  general 
naturalization  acts  apply  to  them.*  An  Indian  can  acquire 
no  title  to  land  unless  he  relinquish  his  tribal  relations  and 
settle  among  the  whites. 

Until  he  renounces  tribal  relations  an  Indian  has  no 
standing  in  our  courts.f  If  he  does  leave  his  tribe,  he  ac 
quires  not  citizenship,  but  the  rights  of  an  alien,  his  children 
of  course  being  citizens  by  birth. 

Such  in  a  most  general  way  is  the  position  of  this  people. 
The  question  before  us  therefore  is,  How  are  we  to  deal 
with  them  ?  While  it  is  contended  on  the  one  hand  that 
there  is  in  the  Indian  a  cruelty,  treachery,  and  want  of 
moral  perception  which  makes  it  impossible  for  him  to 
be  civilized,  and  further  that  it  is  the  universal  law  of 
human  progress  that  the  lower  race  shall  go  down  before 
the  higher — it  is  urged  on  the  other  that  we  have  abundant 
evidence  of  the  Indian's  capability  of  civilization,  and  that 
the  real  difficulty  is  in  our  neglect  and  oppression. 

While  those  upholding  the  former  view  have  frequently 
been  called  heartless  and  brutal,  the  supporters  of  the  latter 
are  often  regarded  as  amiable  sentimentalists  and  harmless 
enthusiasts. 

On  even  a  slight  examination  of  the  question  this,  at 
least,  seems  plain  :  the  Indian  is  separated  from  the  rest 
of  our  population  by  two  great  barriers — the  difference  of 
race,  and  the  difference  of  his  political  position  from  every 
other  man's  in  the  community.  These  two  things  have 


*  7  Opin.  Atty.  Gen.,  746. 

f  Contra.  The  celebrated  decision  of  Judge  Dundy  in  the  Ponca  case,  which 
gave  an  Indian  the  right  to  have  a  writ  of  habeas  corpus.  This,  however,  is  an 
exceptional  case,  and  was  never  taken  to  the  Supreme  Court. 


from  the  first  worked  together  to  make  him  a  stranger  in 
his  own  country.  The  barrier  of  race  induced  us  to  put 
him  in  a  wrong  political  position,  and  that  wrong  political 
position  has  perpetuated  the  barrier  of  race.  If  these 
people  are  ever  to  be  assimilated,  they  can  be  assimilated 
only  by  breaking  down  these  two  barriers.  We  must  bring 
them  as  nearly  as  we  can  to  the  level  of  our  civilization  and 
place  them  in  our  position  politically.  It  is  evident  also 
that  this  isolation  can  not  continue ;  the  rush  of  Western 
settlement  grows  more  and  more.  An  enormous  army 
pours  continually  into  our  Eastern  seaports  to  spread  itself 
over  the  West.  How  can  we  keep  these  still  places  in  the 
midst  of  the  current,  a  bit  of  the  stone  age  in  the  crush  and 
fever  of  American  enterprise?  Yet  this  people  is  there — a 
hard,  undeniable,  stubborn  fact ;  and  it  is  increasing,  a  spot 
of  red  in  the  white  of  our  civilization  which  "  will  not  out." 
We  are  thus  brought  face  to  face  with  that  uncompromising 
alternative  which  every  one  who  -rationally  considers  this 
question  must  recognize.  We  must  either  butcher  them  or 
civilize  them,  and  what  we  do  we  must  do  quickly.  The 
first  would  of  course  never  be  tolerated  by  our  people ;  the 
other  is  that  to  which  our  Government  has  committed 
itself. 

This  civilization,  then,  is  not  a  sentimental  undertaking 
for  the  benefit  of  the  Indian  ;  it  is  a  national  necessity.  We 
must  make  them  self-supporting,  industrious,  and  peaceable. 
We  must  in  the  order  of  things,  for  our  own  interest,  assim 
ilate  and  civilize  them. 

The  one  simple  question  is,  if  we  must  civilize  them, 
what  is  the  best  and  quickest  way  to  do  it? 

To  remove  the  barrier  of  race,  the  first  great  necessity  is 
education  in  its  most  comprehensive  sense. 

It  is  not  within  the  purpose  of  this  sketch  to  speak  of 
the  work  done  by  different  religious  bodies,  particularly 
the  Friends,  the  Episcopalians,  the  Baptists,  and  the  Presby 
terians  ;  yet  any  one  in  the  least  familiar  with  it  must  be 


8 

aware  of  the  enormous  part  it  plays  in  the  Indian's  elevation. 
The  success  of  our  Government  schools,  notably  those  at 
Hampton,  Carlisle,  and  Forest  Grove,  establishes  beyond  a 
doubt  the  great  results  that  might  be  obtained,  were  educa 
tion  more  general.  Children  taken  from  every  tribe,  even 
the  wildest,  have  shown  great  aptitude.  There  is  no  excuse, 
then,  for  the  very  limited  extent  to  which  Indian  children 
are  being  educated.  If  at  Carlisle  the  wildest  children  can 
be  made  intelligent,  industrious,  English-speaking  men  and 
women,  all  can.  By  the  treaty  of  1868,  made  with  ten  tribes 
— the  Sioux,  the  Arapahoes,  the  Comanches,  and  others, 
the  Government  pledged  itself  to  educate  all  the  children  of 
these  tribes.  To  provide  a  school  for  every  thirty  children 
between  the  ages  of  six  and  sixteen.  This  treaty  has  been 
but  partially  fulfilled. 

Until  within  a  year,  although  the  whole  number  of  chil 
dren  of  school  age  in  these  tribes  was,  according  to  Commis 
sioner  Price's  estimate,  not  over  twelve  thousand,*  there 
were  enough  schools  to  educate  but  fourteen  hundred 
and  twenty-three.  The  report  of  Mr.  Price  for  1882 
shows  a  marked  improvement  in  this  matter,  six  boarding- 
schools  having  been  established  since  his  last  report ;  yet 
there  is  still  much  to  be  done.  The  Government  should  not 
be  satisfied  while  it  permits  one  Indian  child  to  grow  up 
without  education. 

"  The  injury,"  says  Captain  Pratt,  "  done  by  the  United 
States  Government  to  the  large  number  of  Indian  boys  and 
girls  who  have  grown  up  during  this  period,  by  withhold 
ing  this  promised  and  valuable  intelligence,  and  the  actual 
injury  and  loss  to  the  country  from  their  having  been  an 
ignorant,  pauper,  peace-destroying,  life-disturbing,  and  im 
poverishing,  instead  of  an  intelligent  producing  element, 
could  not  be  stated  in  figures."t 

*  Indian  Com.  Report,  1881,  page  38.    Ib.  1882,  page  33. 
f  Quoted  in  Kept.  Ind.  Com.,  1881,  page  38. 


9 

But  education  is  not  enough.  Were  every  Indian  in  the 
United  States  educated  our  work  would  be  but  half  done. 
The  Indian  would  be  but  made  keenly  alive  to  his  unjust 
and  defenceless  position  politically.  We  have  seen  that  the 
Indians,  whether  from  necessity  or  policy,  have  always  been 
treated  as  tribes.  A  graver  error  could  scarcely  have  been 
made.  This  course — more  than  anything  else — has  pre 
vented  their  quiet  absorption.  While  the  negroes  with  no 
national  organization  to  hold  them  together,  are  gradually 
dissolving  into  our  population,  occupying  positions,  subordi 
nate  it  is  true,  but  honest  and  respectable,  the  Indians  have 
remained  insoluble,  bound  together  by  their  national  entity. 
By  deliberately  preserving  their  national  existence,  we  have 
preserved  their  manners,  laws,  habits  of  thought,  barbarity, 
we  have  made  them,  from  the  very  nature  of  their  position, 
draw  closer  together,  and  rendered  them  comparatively  in 
accessible  to  the  influence  of  religion  and  civilization.  To 
appreciate  this,  one  has  but  to  glance  at  the  history  of  the 
Indian,  and  his  position  at  the  present  time.  It  will  be  seen 
that  to-day  we  are  neglecting  the  most  obvious  means  of 
breaking  down  this  tribal  organization,  and  bringing  about 
a  feeling  of  individual  responsibility  and  individual  allegi 
ance  to  our  government.  One  of  the  ways  in  which  this 
can  be  done,  a  way  which  has  been  often  urged  by  those 
whose  opinion  is  of  value,  is,  to  give  the  Indian  his  land  in 
severalty  by  an  absolute  fee  simple  title.  It  is  generally 
suggested  that  land  so  given  should  be  made  inalienable  for 
a  fixed  period,  as  twenty  years,  and  be  for  a  time  at  least  not 
liable  for  the  debts  of  the  owner. 

The  advantages  of  thus  giving  the  Indian  a  right  of  indi 
vidual  property  in  land  are  manifest.  The  man  ceases  to 
be  identified  with  the  tribe  when  he  becomes  a  separate 
landholder,  individually  protected  in  the  possession  of  his 
land,  feeling  himself  individually  responsible  for  its  culti 
vation.  Again,  it  is  our  avowed  purpose  to  make  the  Indi 
ans  farmers ;  it  is  highly  expedient  that  this  purpose  should 


10 

be  carried  out.  It  is  in  the  natural  order  of  progress  for 
them  to  pass  from  a  nomadic  to  an  agricultural  state.  Yet 
we  deny  to  them  this  right  of  property,  which  has  ever  been 
found  one  of  the  most  powerful  and  necessary  inducements 
to  human  industry.  "  According  to  all  past  experience," 
says  Malthus,  "  and  the  best  observations  which  can-  be 
made  on  the  motives  which  operate  on  the  human  mind, 
there  can  be  no  well-founded  hope  of  obtaining  a  large 
produce  from  the  soil  but  under  a  system  of  private  prop 
erty.  *  *  *  All  the  attempts  which  have  been  made 
since  the  commencement  of  authentic  history  to  proceed 
upon  a  principle  of  common  property  have  either  been  so 
insignificant  that  no  inference  can  be  drawn  from  them,  or 
have  been  marked  by  the  most  signal  failures.  * 
We  may  therefore  more  safely  conclude  that  while  man 
retains  the  same  physical  and  moral  constitution  which  he 
is  observed  to  possess  at  present,  no  other  than  a  system  of 
private  property  stands  the  least  chance  of  providing  for 
such  a  large  and  increasing  population  as  that  which  is  to 
be  found  in  many  countries  at  present."*  But  there  is  more 
than  this.  Not  only  do  we  deny  the  Indian  this  common 
and  essential  stimulus  of  holding  his  land  in  severalty,  but 
will  not  give  to  the  tribe  itself  any  security  in  the  possession 
of  its  reservation.  The  wavering,  feeble,  shiftless  course 
pursued  by  the  Government  in  this  matter,  which  it  is  a 
satire  to  call  its  policy,  can  only  be  spoken  of  in  words  of 
the  most  uncompromising  condemnation.  We  have  pur 
sued  a  course  that  would  ruin  civilization  and  go  far  to 
make  thrifty  New  England  farmers  beggars.  The  tearing 
up  of  these  people  just  as  they  are  beginning  to  take  root 
in  the  soil,  the  keeping  them  in  a  nomadic  condition  by 
moving  them  when  they  have  just  settled  down,  is  not 
merely  a  blot  on  the  purity  of  our  national  honor,  a  shame 
to  our  religion,  but — if  these  things  have  no  weight  with 


Quoted  by  Commissioner  Price  in  Eeport  for  1882. 


11 

us — it  is  most  flagrantly  short-sighted  and  impolitic.  It  is 
a  course  which  handicaps  the  weakest  runner  in  the  race, 
which  tends  to  make  of  this  people  a  nation  of  paupers  and 
vagabonds  for  the  Government  to  support. 

But  this  is  not  enough.  We  may  educate  the  Indian; 
we*may  give  him  his  land  in  severalty,  yet  if  we  stop  here 
we  have  but  gained  the  outworks.  To  strike  at  the  centre 
of  the  whole  matter,  to  effect  anything  great  and  perma 
nent,  to  take  away  our  reproach  among  men,  we  must 
change  the  position  of  the  Indian  before  the  law,  we  must 
give  him  those  legal  means  of  enforcing  right — which  we 
deny  to  no  other  man  in  the  community — and  we  must 
make  every  Indian,  who  is  fit  for  it,  a  citizen  of  the  United 
States.  I  have  not  space  to  more  than  allude  to  this  funda 
mental  necessity — the  necessity  for  law — but  its  growing  im 
portance  can  hardly  be  overestimated.  These  people  must 
perish  as  a  nation.  If  they  are  to  survive  at  all,  it  must  be 
by  an  individual  absorption  into  our  population.  They 
must  sink  their  national  entity  to  quietly  mix  with  us  as  the 
negroes  and  other  diverse  elements  are  doing.  But  in  tak 
ing  away  their  tribal  organization,  and  in  taking  away 
their  own  primitive  regulations  for  the  repression  and  pun 
ishment  of  crime,  we  give  them  no  law  in  their  place.  This 
evil  must  grow  more  and  more  as  the  old  tribal  bonds  be 
come  more  and  more  loosened.  Yet  while  there  is  no  law 
in  its  proper  sense,  there  is  much  despotism.  The  Indians 
are  under  the  despotic  rule  of  men  with  great  and  ill-defined 
powers.  The  reservations  are  like  so  many  absolute  mon 
archies  blotting  the  face  of  a  republic. 

I  do  not  want  to  exaggerate  in  this  matter,  nor  to  say  any 
thing  to  the  discredit  of  Indian  agents.  There  are  among 
them  some  good,  honest,  and  faithful  men.  The  fault  is  in 
the  system,  a  system  of  big  powers  and  small  salaries,  a  sys 
tem  which  makes  one  man  prosecutor,  judge,  jury,  and 
executive. 

It  is  a  fatal   mistake  to   suppose  this  unconstitutional 


12 

power  placed  in  the  wanton  hands  of  ignorant  men  is  re 
quired  to  keep  order  among  their  tribes.  I  speak  of  the 
things  I  have  seen.  Both  reason  and  facts  tell  us  no  people 
can  be  elevated  by  being  kept  in  this  servile  and  degrading 
condition.  Not  only  is  the  absence  of  law  a  cruel  error  in 
the  effect  it  has  on  the  reservation  life,  but  in  that  it  is  an 
almost  insuperable  difficulty  to  these  people  having  any 
commerce  with  the  whites.  How  can  an  Indian  trade  or 
work  when  he  can  not  bring  a  suit  to  collect  a  debt,  or  to 
recover  his  wages  ?  Nor  is  this  all.  Not  only  do  we  ne 
glect  to  protect  them  individually,  we  punish  a  tribe  for  an 
individual  offence. 

"  Fifth  avenue  shall  not  be  hung  for  the  murders  of  the 
Five  Points.  But  in  the  United  States  the  Indians  have  been 
punished  by  tribes  for  the  misdeeds  of  individual  of 
fenders."* 

How  this  law  is  to  be  introduced  I  shall  not  consider. 
The  manner  is  too  much  a  matter  of  opinion  to  be  properly 
discussed  in  such  a  simple  statement  of  first  principles  as  I 
have  here  attempted.  Perhaps  the  establishment  of  courts, 
independent  of  course  of  the  agent,  similar  to  our  Magis 
trates'  Courts,  with  a  right  of  appeal  to  the  courts  of  the 
United  States,  and  the  introduction  of  a  simple  code  of  laws 
suitable  to  the  primitive  condition  of  the  people,  would 
answer. 

Such,  in  brief,  is  the  singular  position  which  nearly  three 
hundred  thousand  of  our  population  now  occupies — a  posi 
tion  brought  about  in  part  by  the  peculiar  circumstances 
and  complications  of  the  case,  and  in  part  by  the  course 
taken  by  the  Government.  Yet  one  element  in  this  Indian 
question  should  not  be  overlooked.  Although  to  us  the 
wrong  of  this  position  is  so  manifest,  yet  most  of  the  Indians 
utterly  fail  to  appreciate  it.  Thus,  as  we  have  from  the 
first  consistently  fostered  their  natural  love  of  national  in- 

#Law  for  the  Indians.    North  Amer.  Rev.  for  March,  1882,  p.  279. 


13 

dependence,  they  do  not,  as  we  do,  recognize  the  fact  that 
their  loss  of  it  would  be  their  greatest  gain.  So  while  we 
may  see  the  wrong  that  is  done  by  giving  them  no  standing 
in  our  courts,  they  are  anxious  to  administer  their  own  rude 
law.  This  can  not  but  be  regarded  as  one  of  the  great  difficul 
ties  with  which  our  Government  has  had  to  contend,  a  dif 
ficulty  which  can  only  be  overcome  by  wise  legislation,  edu 
cation,  and  time. 

The  conclusion  then  to  which  we  have  come,  in  our  hur 
ried  examination  of  the  condition  of  this  people,  is  this  : 

The  Indians  are  among  us  increasing  in  number.  As  we 
can  not  exterminate  them  without  war,  wholesale  murder, 
great  expense,  and  a  violation  of  religion,  justice,  and  hu 
manity,  which  would  never  be  permitted,  the  general  inter 
est  demands  their  assimilation.  There  are  two  great  obsta 
cles  in  the  way  of  this  necessary  assimilation — their  race  dif 
ferences  and  the  difference  of  their  political  position.  It  is 
therefore  a  matter  of  policy  and  necessity  that  these  two 
differences  should  be  done  away  with  ;  the  first  by  educa 
tion,  the  second  by  legislation.  There  is  but  one  thing  to 
add.  I  believe  the  facts  show  there  is  nothing  in  the  In 
dian  nature  which  renders  such  an  assimilation  impossible; 
but  however  that  may  be,  the  duty  and  expediency  of  our 
doing  our  part  remains  the  same. 

Here  I  should  perhaps  end,  but  I  can  not  help  adding  a 
reminder  that  there  is  another  light  in  which  this  matter 
may  be  regarded.  We  have  looked  at  it  in  the  name  of 
dollars  and  cents,  and  of  a  worldly  expediency — but  there  is 
another  wisdom  than  the  wisdom  pf  men  and  a  law  higher 
than  the  laws  of  men.  There  are  those  who  call  common 
honesty  in  this  matter — sentimentality  ;  treaty-keeping — 
foolishness ;  and  a  desire  to  give  to  these  men  the  rights  of 
men — enthusiasm.  They  glorify  "  the  march  of  our  civiliza 
tion  " — as  the  slang  goes — though  it  has  gone  on  like  a  car 
of  Juggernaut  over  the  bodies  and  souls  of  men  ;  though  its 
handmaids  have  been  oppression,  cruelty,  lying,  robbery, 


14 

and  murder.  Though  we  stand  here  a  representative  of 
all  the  world  lias  hitherto  attained,  heirs  to  an  accumulated 
glory;  that  heritage  of  beauty,  of  wisdom,  of  self-sacrifice, 
of  tenderness  which  poet  and  painter,  philosopher  and  saint, 
all  who  dying  have  left  a  light  behind  them  in  the  world, 
have  bequeathed  to  humanity;  though  above  all  we  are  in 
trusted  with  the  holiest  message  of  Christianity,  they  say 
we  can  do  nothing  for  these  people,  crushed  and  helpless  as 
they  are,  but  stamp  them  out  as  the  strong  brute  stamps 
out  his  weaker  brother.  How  pitiful,  how  awful  does  it 
seem,  if  we  look  at  it  in  that  other  light,  the  light  of  the 
whiteness  of  the  Eternal  Righteousness,  if  we  can — no,  if  we 
will — do  indeed  no  more  than  this.  For  it  is  by  that 
Righteousness  and  that  Higher  Law  that  this  people  of  the 
United  States  of  America  shall  be  judged. 


IMPBESSIONS 


THE  SIOUX  TRIBES  IN  1882. 


"WELL,  sir,  where's  your  claim?"  This  salute  from  nu 
merous  eager  fellow-passengers  on  the  first  morning  after  I 
left  Chicago,  made  me  feel  I  was  at  last  nearing  that  Mecca 
of  so  many  modern  pilgrims,  "  The  Great  Northwest."  I 
looked  through  the  car  with  unusual  interest.  Here  was 
the  stuff  out  of  which  the  nation  of  the  future  was  to  be 
made.  Behind  me  a  burly,  black-bearded  Westerner  was 
telling  a  characteristic  story  of  "  a  joke  he'd  put  up  on  the 
boys."  Around  me  were  restless  farmers  from  Iowa  moving 
further  West,  Norwegians  with  red  emigrant  tickets  in  their 
hats,  in  one  corner  a  trim,  placid  German  girl,  with  smooth 
flaxen  hair,  and  meaningless  blue  eyes.  At  the  far  end  of 
the  car  a  young  foreigner  was  trying  to  play  "  Home,  Sweet 
Home  "  on  a  mouth  organ.  As  his  conception  of  the  tune 
was  far  from  the  conventional  one,  his  rendering  had  a 
deep  but  inharmonious  pathos.  To  that  shadowy  creature 
the  American  of  the  future,  the  colonizing  of  the  wilder 
ness  by  his  enterprising  ancestors  will  doubtless  have  a 
poetry  and  significance  which  we  fgjjl  to  find.  To  us,  the 
Falstaff's  army  of  discontented,  unsuccessful  men,  the  gam 
blers,  emigrants,  and  convicts  that  go  out  as  representatives 
of  our  dominant  race  to  conquer  the  wilderness,  has  not 
perhaps  its  real  picturesqueness  or  meaning.  Yet  I  felt 
that  I  was  the  spectator  of  a  wonderful  phase  in  the  develop 
ment  of  a  great  nation,  and  my  nearness  only  increased  my 
wonder.  These  were  the  men  who  were  going  out  to  build 
Rome  in  a  day.  In  an  unsettled  country  there  is  a  fascina- 

(15) 


16 

tion  in  standing  in  the  midst  of  the  strange  mixture  of  dis 
organized  human  life.  You  are  present  at  the  birth  of  a 
nation.  You  see  plainly  the  working  of  great  underlying 
laws,  as  the  confused  whirl  of  life  steadies  itself,  to  crystal 
lize  in  the  forms  of  social  order.  The  country  on  which  we 
were  entering  took  hold  upon  my  imagination.  There  is 
no  solitude  like  the  vast  vacuity  of  the  plains.  All  day  we 
pushed  steadily  into  the  level  silence,  yet  at  sunset  there  was 
nothing  to  tell  us  we  had  advanced  a  foot.  The  only  change 
was  that  from  long,  flat,  treeless  stretches  to  a  more  undu 
lating  country,  where  the  mighty  plain  gathers  itself  into 
grassy  swells,  full  of  free  delicious  curves  and  soft  hollows. 
The  earth  seemed  waiting,  after  the  primeval  fashion,  for 
man  to  come  in  and  possess  it,  and  the  great,  clear  dome  of 
blue,  big  and  tender  enough  to  shut  in  all  the  world.  In 
deed  the  world  seems  not  slow  to  come. 

In  a  quiet  valley  in  Dakota  I  saw  the  rude,  mud-plastered 
huts  of  a  colony  of  Kussians,  who  had  escaped  from  despot 
ism  into  this  free  air.  In  one  county,  I  was  told,  there  were 
ten  different  nationalities.  As  we  advanced  the  towns 
began  to  assume  a  ruder  and  more  recent  aspect.  I  soon 
grew  familiar  with  the  single  street  and  its  flare  of  yellow 
pine,  with  the  groups  of  houses,  many  of  them  unfinished, 
huddled  together  as  if  to  escape  the  loneliness  of  the  plain. 
I  came  to  greet,  as  a  matter  of  course,  the  ubiquitous  land 
office,  the  store  with  its  prominent  stock  of  plows  and  har 
rows,  the  frequent  saloon. 

In  Dakota  a  saloon,  or  perhaps  two,  a  blacksmith  shop,  and 
-a  law  office,  are  said  kAnake  a  town  ;  indeed,  the  train  once 
stopped  at  a  house  and  a  half.  On  inquiring,  with  perhaps 
pardonable  sarcasm,  what  town  it  was,  I  was  apologetically 
told  by  the  conductor,  "  Oh !  this  ain't  any  place  yet ;  it's 
agoin'  to  be  something  City"  About  the  middle  of  my  sec 
ond  day  from  Chicago  I  reached  Chamberlain,  Dakota,  a 
town  of  perhaps  one  or  two  hundred  inhabitants,  whose 
single  street  climbs  the  steep  ascent  of  a  hill  on  the  bank 


17 

of  the  Missouri.  My  first  feeling  was  one  of  delight. 
Everything  seemed  so  typical  and  so  novel.  On  every  side 
the  rounded,  flowing  outlines  of  hills,  that  melted  insensi 
bly  into  one  another  with  that  indescribable  air  of  heaving, 
sea-like  motion.  One  side  of  the  railroad,  on  a  great  slope,, 
was  a  huge  herd  of  cattle,  a  wonderful  patch  of  moving 
color  against  the  vivid  green ;  on  the  other,  the  hilly  street 
of  Chamberlain,  with  its  jumble  of  wooden  houses.  On  a 
little  elevation  a  group  of  Indians,  the  first  I  had  seen, 
dressed  in  an  unromantically  civilized  manner,  regarded 
the  train  with  a  dignified  stolidity.  In  another  direction, 
on  the  edge  of  the  town,  a  characteristic  group  of  whites, 
near  a  white-topped  plains  wagon,  crowding  about  a  fire  in 
evident  anticipation  of  dinner.  On  a  more  intimate  ac 
quaintance,  I  found  Chamberlain  in  no  wise  disappointing. 
I  felt  like  a  modern  Gulliver,  who  had  got  to  a  land  where 
the  measure  of  time  instead  of  space  was  different.  To  the- 
good  people  of  Chamberlain  things  that  had  happened  in 
the  early  days  of  the  city  seemed  already  to  have  gained  a 
halo  of  remoteness.  They  looked  back  to  the  A.  U.  C.  with 
the  historic  pride  of  an  ancient  Eoman.  "  Did  they  have 
any  mayor  or  police  ?  Why,  yes ;  this  town  was  incorpo 
rated  three  weeks  ago."  I  inquired  the  character  of  a  man 
I  wanted  to  engage  as  a  driver.  "  Trust  that  man — why 
I've  knowed  that  man — I've  knowed  him  all  winter." 
Before  very  long  I  became  acquainted  with  the  editor  of 
the  Chamberlain  Daily,  from  whom  I  learned  that  his  paper 
was  older  than  the  town.  "  You  see,  sir,"  he  said,  with  pardon 
able  pride,  "  I  knew  that  there  was  going  to  be  a  town 
started  here,  so  I  set  up  the  type  for  the  first  copy  of  the 
paper  myself  at "  (mentioning  some  town,  whose  name  I 
have  forgotten),  "  and  there  was  a  Chamberlain  Daily  before 
there  was  any  Chamberlain."  At  Chamberlain,  the  rail 
road,  with  the  motley  crowd  of  settlers  it  brings,  stops ;  for 
on  the  other  side  of  the  fierce  waters  of  the  Missouri  is- 
another  race  and  another  order  of  things.  The  Great 


18 

Sioux  Reservation  extends  about  two  hundred  miles  along 
the  western  bank  of  the  Missouri.  Shut  in  here  in  absolute 
isolation,  in  the  midst  of  the  feverish  push  and  hurry  of 
so  many  contending  races,  is  that  strange  and  hitherto  in 
soluble  element— the  American  Indian. 

The  morning  after  my  arrival  at  Chamberlain,  I  looked 
out  upon  the  world  from  the  new  standpoint  of  an  Indian 
reservation. 

I  was  the  guest  of  the  Rev.  Luke  Walker,  the  Indian 
clergyman  at  Lower  Brule.  It  was  Sunday,  and  a  day  of 
wonderful  and  quiet  beauty.  I  heard  with  peculiar  feelings 
the  sound  of  the  church-bell  among  those  lonely  hills.  I 
watched  with  great  interest  the  Indians  assemble  for  ser 
vice.  Many  of  them  came  in  wagons — the  gay  scarlet  and 
plaid  shawls  of  the  women  fluttering  picturesquely  in  the 
breezy  sunshine.  Most  of  the  men  were  on  ponies,  dashing 
and  wheeling  over  the  hills  with  a  peculiarly  Indian  reck 
lessness  and  grace.  The  men  were  dressed  in  civilized 
fashion — that  is,  in  calico  shirts  and  woolen  trousers,  roughly 
made,  with  the  seams  outside.  Most  of  the  Indians  had  blank 
ets,  which  they  wrapped  round  them  in  a  singularly  grace 
ful  way.  They  wore  their  long  black  hair  in  plaits.  The 
Sioux  are  tall,  fine  looking  men.  The  faces  of  many  show 
great  character  and  intelligence.  Their  figures  are  indica 
tive  of  activity  and  endurance  rather  than  great  strength. 
The  women  have  generally  pleasant  and  gentle  faces. 

It  was  not  long  before  the  church  was  filled  with  a  devout 
and  attentive  congregation.  It  was  not  a  scene  to  be  for 
gotten.  The  church,  small  but  perfect  in  its  appointments. 
The  clear  stillness  and  sunshine.  Two  priests,  a  white  man 
and  a  Sioux,  kneeling  together  at  the  altar.  The  wonderful 
reverence  and  earnestness  of  these  people  of  a  despised  race. 
The  strangeness  of  hearing  the  Episcopal  service  in  the 
soft,  musical  Dakota,  or  some  familiar  hymn  tune  sung  to 
strange  words.  I  followed  in  English  the  Psalter  for  the 
day. 


19 

"  Let  God  arise,  and  let  his  enemies  be  scattered."  *  "  He  is 

the  Father  of  the  fatherless,  and  defendeth  the  cause  of  the  widows. 
Even  God  in  his  holy  habitation. 

"  0  God,  wonderful  art  thou  in  holy  places,  even  the  God  of  Israel ;  he 
will  give  strength  and  power  unto  his  people.  Blessed  be  God." 

In  walking  over  the  reservation  near  the  Agency,  I  no 
ticed  that  considerable  progress  had  been  made  by  many  of 
the  Indians  in  farming.  A  great  number  of  families  were 
living  in  huts  quite  as  good  as  those  occupied  by  the  pio 
neer  settlers  among  the  whites.  There  was  among  them, 
especially  among  the  more  industrious  and  intelligent,  a 
pitiful  anxiety  lest  their  lands  should  be  taken  from  them. 
"  If  they  move  my  people  now,"  the  Indian  missionary  said, 
"  they  had  better  move  us  all  into  the  middle  of  the  Pacific 
Ocean."  Yet  one  had  but  to  cross  the  river  to  hear  from 
some  swaggering  fortune-hunter,  "  Yes,  we're  a-gittin'  along 
pooty  well.  Ef  we  only  can  git  that  reservation  opened 
up — the  railroad's  jest  a-waitin'  to  run  thro'  there.  Them 
lazy  Indians  has  elegant  land." 

Here  before  my  eyes  was  a  long  story  in  miniature.  The 
two  sides  of  the  river  and  of  the  question ;  there  needed  but 
the  entrance  of  the  pliant  Government  with  its  lofty  indiffer 
ence  to  treaties,  honor  and  honesty,  and  its  support  of  the 
stronger  side,  to  complete  the  play.  I  do  not  wish  to  give  the 
impression  that  the  Indians  at  Lower  Brul£  wTere  all  Chris 
tians  or  all  farmers.  The  people  seemed  in  a  most  painful 
and  struggling  state  of  transition.  We,  who  have  climbed 
to  our  present  altitude  through  more  weary  centuries  than 
we  can  well  count,  are  surely  thoughtlessly  intolerant  of 
what  we  foolishly  think  the  slow  progress  of  the  Indian. 
To  no  nation  is  the  first  step  an  easy  thing,  and  we  have 
made — in  many  ways  we  are  still  making — the  road  hard 
for  their  feet.  I  saw  here  many  instances  of  laziness  and 
superstition.  On  the  top  of  a  hill  near  the  Agency  I  found 
on  a  small  stick  a  faded  calico  flag,  which  I  was  told  was  an 
offering  to  the  thunder  bird.  This  fabled  monster  dwells  in 


20 

the  mysterious  canyons  of  the  Black  Hills.  The  thunder  is 
its  singing,  and  the  lightning  the  flashing  of  its  eyes.  One 
man  had  his  teepee  fastened  closely  to  the  ground  with 
huge  stones.  He  was  keeping  a  spirit  in  there,  and  was 
afraid  it  would  escape.  What  he  intended  to  do  with  his 
spirit,  now  he  had  caught  it,  I  could  not  learn.  Yet  the 
general  tendency  of  the  people  is  clearly  toward  getting  to 
work  and  taking  up,  as  they  call  it,  "  the  new  way,"  I  was 
much  impressed  with  one  man,  a  half-breed,  who  was  about 
starting  out  with  some  of  his  friends  to  found  a  colony  in  a 
distant  part  of  the  reservation.  He  told  me  with  great  earn 
estness  he  wanted  to  support  himself  and  be  independent. 
He  could  not,  of  course,  under  the  present  system  of  tenure, 
take  a  claim  on  the  reservation,  as  numberless  white  men 
were  doing  off  it.*  He  went  out  with  the  discouraging 
knowledge  that  no  labor  or  improvements  on  his  part 
would  induce  the  Government  to  respect  what,  in  common 
justice,  was  his  property.  It  seems,  to  say  the  least,  a 
rather  anomalous  legal  position. 

Here  are  Eussians,  Norwegians,  and  -the  scum  of  many 
nations,  complacently  taking  claims  on  land  wrested  from 
these  very  Sioux  by  the  might  of  our  Government,  in  shame 
less  violation  of  its  solemn  treaty,  yet  an  Indian  can  ac 
quire  no  title  in  the  little  land  we  have  kindly  left  him. 
Give  him  a  title  and  you  make  robbery  illegal. 

"  The  good  old  rule 
Sufficeth  us  ;  the  simple  plan 
That  they  should  take  who  have  the  power, 
And  they  should  keep  who  can." 

After  leaving  Lower  Brul6  I  visited  several  Indian 
schools  and  other  reservations  in  Dakota.  Santee  and 
Yankton  agencies  it  will  be  impossible  for  me  to  speak  of 
in  detail.  The  condition  of  things  on  these  agencies  was, 

*  It  is  true  that  the  treaty  with  the  Sioux  of  1868  appears  to  give  these  Indians 
a  right  to  take  a  claim  on  their  reservations,  yet  no  effort  to  obtain  a  patent 
under  it  has  so  far  been  successful,  although  repeated  applications  have  been 
made. 


21 

roughly  speaking,  much  the  same  as  that  I  had  seen  at 
Lower  Brule.  Though  at  Santee  the  Indian  farms  were,  I 
think,  more  successful  than  any  I  saw  elsewhere.  From 
them  I  made  my  way  to  Rosebud,  an  agency  south  of  the 
centre  of  the  territory.  I  reached  Rosebud  by  a  drive  of 
some  thirty  miles  from  Fort  Niobrara,  Neb.,  over  an  abso 
lutely  deserted  stretch  of  prairie.  There  was  neither  tree, 
nor  bush,  nor  game.  An  awful  and  interminable  flatness. 
A  sharp  circle  of  horizon.  A  great  hollow  sphere  of  sky. 
Our  little  party,  "  crawling  between  earth  and  heaven," 
seemed  the  only  living  thing  in  a  deserted  world.  In  the 
midst  of  this  blank  solitude  is  Rosebud  and  its  eight  thous 
and  human  souls. 

You  come  upon  it  suddenly.  Hills,  with  sharp  ravines 
and  rough  descents,  break  in  upon  the  plain.  You  reach 
the  top  of  one  of  these  and  Rosebud  lies  before  you.  A 
great  hollow  or  basin  in  the  hills — hills  scored  with  yellow 
roads  that  wriggle  their  dusty  course  down  the  green  slopes. 
But  few  houses  are  to  be  seen.  On  an  elevation  at  a  little 
distance  a  neat  cottage  built  by  the  Government  for  old 
Spotted  Tail  and  now  occupied  by  his  son ;  on  another  hill 
the  Episcopal  church  with  its  tiny  spire,  and  the  parsonage. 
In  the  centre  of  the  hollow  the  whitewashed  buildings  of 
the  Agency,  with  their  rough  stockade,  and  the  stores  of  the 
Government  traders.  Almost  all  the  Indians  live  in  tents, 
and  their  white  teepees  can  be  seen  in  every  direction  dot 
ting  the  sweeping  hillsides.  There  is  about  Rosebud  a 
strange  sense  of  remoteness  and  mournful  stagnation.  One 
can  scarcely  realize  that  but  forty  miles  away  is  the  railroad, 
that  has  pushed  like  a  great  wedge  into  the  stillness ;  that 
there  is  the  advance  guard  of  a  grasping  swarm  of  life 
spreading  like  locusts  over  the  land.  No  whisper,  no  influ 
ence  for  good  or  for  evil  comes  to  these  people  from  that 
other  world  that  is  closing  round  them  to  disturb  their  dull 
inertness  and  fatal  content.  As  I  walked  out  at  sunset  the 
night  of  my  arrival,  the  pity  of  it  seemed  to  oppress  me. 


22 

There  seemed  a  mournful  fitness  in  the  cry  of  a  woman 
wailing  for  her  dead  in  the  neighboring  churchyard.  There 
is  something  indescribably  sad  in  the  wailing  of  these 
women.  In  that  clear  atmosphere  I  could  hear  with  won 
derful  distinctness  the  long,  plaintive  moan,  followed  by 
the  quick,  sobbing  catching  of  breath.  Long  after  the 
sunset  had  burnt  itself  out,  far  into  the  night,  when  I  woke 
I  could  hear  her. 

What  is  to  be  the  result  of  the  Government  policy  of  thus 
isolating  a  race  so  widely  different  from  our  own  from  every 
civilizing  influence  that  is  flowing  round  it?  That  the  In 
dian  question  will  never  be  settled  by  the  simple  dying  out 
of  the  race  is  certain.  The  most  indisputable  statistics  prove 
that  the  Indian  is  not  yielding  to  the  pressure  of  the  higher 
race.* 

Nor  can  the  favorite  policy  of  moving  the  reservations  at 
the  instigation  of  land  hunters  be  indefinitely  continued,  as 
there  will  soon  be  no  land,  even  the  most  barren,  left  to 
which  to  move  them.  This  question,  "  What  are  we  to  do 
with  the  Indian  ?"  will  thus  year  by  year  more  and  more 
obstinately  confront  ourselves  and  our  descendants.  Yet  it 
has  been  answered  a  hundred  times,  and  the  answers  of 
honest  and  thoughtful  men  are  substantially  the  same. 

While  admitting  the  original  difficulties  of  the  question, 
and  the  unfortunate  complications,  which  the  misdoings  of 


#  As  this  is  directly  contrary  to  the  general  belief,  I  quote  from  a  distinguished 
authority  in  support  of  my  assertion.  "  The  opinion  that  the  Indian  population 
is  destined  to  disappear  prevails  to  a  great  extent  among  the  masses  of  our  people. 
This  is  regarded  as  the  unavoidable  result  of  contact  with  civilization.  A  care 
ful  study  of  the  census  of  the  population  through  a  series  of  years,  with  an  exami 
nation  of  vital  statistics  for  the  past  four  years,  will  satisfy  the  reader  that  this 
opinion  must  be  modified,  and  the  conclusion  will  be  reached  that  the  Indians, 
instead  of  vanishing,  are  destined  to  be  and  remain  with  us  for  ages  to  come." 
After  giving  some  statistics  he  concludes :  "  While  these  data  may  not  warrant 
any  definite  conclusion  as  to  the  tendency  and  ratio  of  increase,  there  is  sufficient 
in  the  figures  to  dispel  the  theory  that  the  Indian  race  is  vanishing,  and  from 
natural  causes  will  soon  disappear." 

Our  Indian  Wards — Geo.    W.  Manypenny.     Introduction,  page  23. 


the  early  settlers,  and  the  weakness,  vacillation,  and  crimes 
of  the  Government  have  introduced  into  it,  there  is  an 
intelligent  belief  that  certain  radical  changes  would  do 
much  toward  solving  the  problem.  The  necessity  of  these 
changes  is  so  obvious,  that  to  show  why  they  should  be 
made  seems  almost  like  trying  to  prove  an  axiom.  They 
have  been  recommended  in  report  after  report  of  our 
Indian  Commissioners,  they  have  for  years  been  urged  in 
our  public  prints.  They  are  the  plain  suggestions  of  prac 
tical  men,  based  upon  very  ancient,  simple,  and  well-recog 
nized  principles  of  right  and  good  government.  Think  of 
the  Indian  as  you  will,  their  expediency  and  their  justice 
is  unaltered. 

Acknowledge  that  the  Indian  is  a  man,  and  as  such  give 
him  that  standing  in  our  courts,  which  is  freely  given  as  a 
right  and  a  necessity  to  every  other  man.  Grant  him  indi 
vidually  a  fee  simple  title  to  land,  when  he  shows  himself 
worthy  of  it.  Do  not  move  the  reservations.  Strictly  limit 
the  power  of  agents,  and  as  soon  as  possible  abolish  the 
agent  system. 

Finally,  admit  the  Indians,  man  by  man,  as  they  qualify 
themselves,  to  citizenship.  In  a  word,  it  is  to  our  interest 
to  make  the  Indians  quiet,  self-supporting  citizens.  If  we 
want  to  make  them  like  other  people,  we  wdll  never  do  it 
by  studiously  treating  them  differently  from  everybody  else. 

These  changes  are  not  made,  because  the  Eastern  States 
are  indifferent ;  because  the  Western  States  can  not  see  be 
yond  their  gain  by  the  legalized  robbery  of  the  present 
system  ;  because  politicians,  agents,  and  contractors  have  a 
direct  pecuniary  interest  in  keeping  things  as  they  are.  I 
think  we  of  the  East,  who  are  neither  hot  nor  cold,  do  not 
realize  that  there  are  among  us  nearly  three  hundred 
thousand  human  beings,  over  whose  lives  and  property  one 
man  at  Washington  has  been  given  absolute  power ;  who 
have  no  standing  in  court  individually  or  collectively,  be 
ing  in  law  neither  citizens,  aliens,  or  a  foreign  nation ;  who 


24 

are  therefore  robbed  and  cheated  with  impunity.  Yet  if 
these  men  demand  their  rights  by  force,  the  only  way  we 
have  left  them,  we  have  always  greater  force  to  stamp  down 
those  we  have  no  law  to  uphold.  This  is  in  a  Republic,  the 
main  article  of  whose  creed  is  the  liberty  and  equality  of 
all  men. 

At  Rosebud  about  once  a  week  the  trader  issues  to  the  In 
dians  their  supply  of  beef.  These  animals  are  not  butchered 
in  the  usual  way,  but  hundreds  of  them  are  driven  out  of  the 
corral  on  the  hills,  where  the  Indians  await  them  and  shoot 
them  down.  The  day  after  my  arrival  happened  to  be 
"issue  day,"  as  they  call  it.  About  ten  o'clock,  the  Indians 
began  to  assemble  on  their  ponies,  armed  with  pistols  and 
short  rifles,  and  very  soon  the  hills  were  bright  with  gay 
groups  of  horsemen.  Suddenly  there  is  a  scattering  among 
the  riders,  and  over  the  sharp  edge  of  the  hill,  plunging- 
down  the  slope  in  a  wild,  irregular  gallop,  come  the  cattle, 
fierce  Texas  steers  with  huge  horns.  With  remarkable  pre 
cision  each  Indian  selects  his  victim  and  separates  it  from 
the  throng.  The  scene  that  follows  is  a  quick  succession  of 
beautiful  shifting  pictures.  The  huge,  maddened,  clumsy 
brutes  racing  aimlessly  over  the  steep  slopes,  lashing  their 
tails  and  tossing  their  heads,  foiled  at  every  point  by  their 
nimble  adversaries,  who  wheel  about  them  glorious  flashes 
of  color.  There  is  a  stirring  abandon  and  daring  in  the 
way  the  men  dash  up  and  down  the  tumble  of  hills.  Every 
few  minutes  comes  a  puff  of  smoke,  and  the  sharp  crack  of  a 
rifle,  then  you  wait  and  watch.  Some  heavy  beast  thunders 
on — staggers — stumbles — and  his  great  bulk  tumbles  in  a 
convulsive  heap.  After  it  is  over  come  the  squaws,  like  the 
stragglers  on  the  field  after  a  battle,  knock  those  that  are 
yet  alive  on  the  head  with  a  tomahawk,  and  cut  up  the 
slain  for  their  expectant  families. 

Rosebud,  if  it  has  some  of  the  inaction,  has  also  much  of 
the  gorgeous  coloring  of  an  Eastern  nation.  I  saw  there  a 
number  of  men  coming  to  a  council.  As  they  wound  down 
a  steep  path,  the  moving  file  in  scarlet  and  white  and  pur- 


25 

pie,  through  the  green  of  the  low  bushes,  made  a  magnifi 
cent  effect  of  color.  I  saw  many  Indians  riding  enveloped, 
like  Arabs,  head  and  all,  in  white,  who  regarded  me  literally 
with  a  curious  eye.  Everything  there  is  so  primitive  that 
the  old  world  picturesqueness  and  contrast  is  not  yet  rubbed 
off  the  surface  of  life.  I  have  brought  away  from  there  a 
gallery  of  mental  pictures.  The  keen  edge  of  a  hill,  white 
with  crumbled  limestone,  against  a  clear,  intense  depth  of 
blue,  in  the  foreground  a  scarlet-cloaked  Indian  girl  with 
mild,  soft  eyes;  camp-fires  red  in  a  wonderful  twilight, 
while  the  darkening  hills  stand  sharp  and  black  against  the 
still,  pale  blue,  and  the  sun  sinks  cloudlessly,  Venus  strange 
ly  brilliant  above  a  cold  radiance  of  yellow  light.  Yet  its 
picturesqueness  and  beauty  scarcely  impress  one  as  much  as 
its  sadness.  Here  are  strong  men  effortless  and  purposeless, 
whose  object  in  life  seems  to  trick  themselves  out  in  tawdry 
finery  and  strut  about  the  reservation ;  women  ignorant  and 
toil-worn  ;  children — the  saddest  sight  of  all — growing  up 
as  untaught  and  dirty  as  their  parents.  The  one  hope  in 
the  midst  of  all  this  is  the  brave  little  church,  telling  in  daily 
service  the  old  message  of  holiness  and  Christ. 

But  the  church  pleads  and  struggles  unaided.  Although 
by  the  treaty  of  1868  the  Government  bound  itself  to  edu 
cate  the  children  on  this  agency,  *  and  to  provide  a  school 
for  every  thirty  children  between  the  ages  of  six  and  six 
teen,  there  is  not  to-day  one  school  among  these  eight  thous 
and  people.  I  saw  there  many  troops  of  children,  dressed 
in  cheap  finery,  the  older  boys  wearing  that  long  trailing 
strip  of  flannel  which  is  the  toga  virilis  of  the  Indian,  roving 
aimlessly  about  the  reservation.  There  was  an  unsettled, 
untamed  air  about  them,  that  I  had  not  noticed  in  the  In 
dian  children  elsewhere.  They  had  a  strange  furtive  way 
of  looking  at  us,  half  in  suspicion  and  half  in  wonder,  very 
different  from  the  timidity  of  the  children  at  Lower  Brul6 

*  I  have  a  very  decided  impression  that  the  treaty  of  1876  also  guaranteed  the 
education  of  these  children  in  part  payment  for  land  taken  from  them  after  the- 
Sioux  war. 


26 

that  soon  yielded  to  childish  confidence.  Here  and  there 
at  Rosebud  I  came  across  a  trim,  soldierly  boy  in  a  neat 
uniform  of  gray,  and  recognized  the  student  at  Carlisle  home 
for  vacation. 

By  a  provision  in  the  treaty  of  1876  the  Government 
agreed  to  support  these  Rosebud  Indians  until  they  became 
able  to  support  themselves,  with  the  proviso,  that  to  insure 
this  assistance  they  must  see  some  effort  on  the  part  of  an 
Indian  toward  self-support.  This  proviso  has  been  persis 
tently  ignored  by  the  authorities.  With  a  kindness  as  mis 
taken  as  its  severity,  the  Government  practically  says  :  "  We 
will  give  you  everything  you  want — plenty  to  eat,  plenty  to 
wear — you  have  your  teepees  which  you  are  accustomed  to 
live  in — we  will  give  you  all  this  until  you  go  to  work  ; 
when  you  do  we  stop  supporting  you."  This  astonishing 
method  of  setting  a  premium  on  idleness  finds  a  companion 
picture  in  the  following  :  The  Government,  being  somewhat 
afraid  of  the  Sioux,  and  finding  it,  moreover,  expensive  and 
troublesome  to  kill  them,  has  hit  upon  the  happy  expedient 
of  keeping  the  wilder  Indians  in  a  good  humor  by  giving 
them  more  blankets,  rations,  &c.,  than  the  quiet  and  indus 
trious  portion  of  the  community,  from  whom  less  is  to  be 
dreaded.  It  does  not,  of  course,  matter  to  the  Government 
that  the  better  class  of  Indians  are  in  a  critical  stage  of  the 
struggle  from  the  old  life  to  the  new,  and  that  they  are 
sorely  in  need  of  judicious  help  and  encouragement.  This 
damning  fact,  that  the  more  dangerous  and  unmanage 
able  a  band  is,  the  more  it  gets  from  the  Government,  I 
found  widely  appreciated  by  the  Indians  on  the  reservations 
I  visited.  The  wilder  Indians,  I  was  told,  were  constantly 
coming  to  those  struggling  to  farm  at  Lower  Brule,  and 
asking  them  why  they  didn't  steal  some  ponies  or  threaten 
a  disturbance,  telling  them  if  they  did  the  great  father  at 
Washington  would  send  them  better  supplies.  When  we 
add  to  this  the  despotic  and  unconstitutional  powers  placed 
in  the  hands  of  agents,  and  reflect  that  the  salaries  of  these 
agents — often  as  low  as  twelve  or  thirteen  hundred  dollars 


27 

— are  so  pitifully  small  as  almost  to  insure  the  appointment 
of  inferior  men,  and  invite  dishonesty,  the  state  of  things  at 
many  of  the  agencies  seems  easily  explained.  Some  agents 
are  perfect  exemplifications  of  the  evils  of  the  agent  system 
as  it  is  at  present  administered — men  ignorant,  conceited, 
and  narrow-minded  in  their  office,  and  openly  irreligious 
and  immoral  in  their  private  lives,  yet  controlling  many 
thousand  Indians,  and  looked  up  to  by  them  as  examples 
of  white  civilization  for  them  to  follow.  The  tyrannical 
power  of  these  agents  astounded  me. 

Here  in  the  midst  of  us  is  an  authorized  power,  so  des 
potic  as  to  be  utterly  irreconcilable  with  every  principle  of 
liberty  we  profess.  The  agent  is  given  power  to  arrest  and 
imprison  Indians  without  trial.  Here  in  America,  in  the 
nineteenth  century,  does  our  Government  deny  these  men  a 
right  which  Englishmen  gained  for  themselves  in  the  thir 
teenth.  An  agent  has  the  power  by  his  simple,  autocratic 
word,  of  cutting  off  any  man's  rations  for  two,  three,  six 
months,  or  an  indefinite  period.  I  can  bear  witness,  from 
personal  observation,  that  this  power  is  freely  and  carelessly 
exercised.  These  unhappy  people,  which  the  Government, 
with  such  a  ludicrous  tenderness,  calls  its  wards,  are  cer 
tainly  to  be  pitied,  in  that  there  is  no  power  strong  enough 
to  repress  the  peculation,  stupidity,  and  tyranny  of  their  au 
gust  guardian.  These  are  but  a  few  of  the  evils,  and  these  I 
can  but  barely  indicate.  Yet  there  is  one  thing  that  lies 
like  a  gleam  of  light  across  this  dark  picture — the  work  of 
the  church  and  of  the  schools.  There  is  among  the  Indians 
a  natural  reverence  and  respect  for  sacred  things,  and  their 
own  belief  in  a  Great  Spirit,  and  the  absence  of  idola 
try  among  them  makes  them  receive  with  readiness  the 
principles  of  Christianity.  It  seems  to  come  to  them  like  a 
further  declaration  of  that  Unknown  God,  which  before 
they  had  ignorantly  worshiped.  Of  the  schools,  I  wish  I 
could  say  all  that  they  deserve.  Besides  the  Government 
schools,  which  in  some  reservations  are  doing  much  good 
work,  I  visited  a  number  of  church  schools,  established  and 


28 

overlooked  by  Bishop  Hare.  The  design  and  working  of 
these  schools  is  beyond  all  praise.  Besides  religious  in 
struction  and  the  ordinary  English  studies,  the  girls  are 
taught  sewing,  cooking,  and  all  the  branches  of  housekeep 
ing,  while  the  boys  make  their  own  beds,  chop  wood,  take 
care  of  the  horses,  and  learn  to  farm.  The  value  of  their  thus 
learning  to  work  with  their  own  hands  is  inestimable.  I 
was  also  much  impressed  by  what  I  saw  of  a  large  school 
established  by  the  Congregationalists  and  carried  on  by 
Mr.  Alfred  Riggs. 

Of  the  children  at  these  schools  I  scarcely  know  how  to 
speak.  I  can  perhaps  say  nothing  better  than  that  they 
are  children.  The  recollection  of  them  is  one  of  unmixed 
tenderness  and  delight.  They  are  so  happy,  so  funny,  so 
bright,  so  childlike,  so  affectionate,  so  lovable,  I  believe  the 
most  dogmatic  and  uncompromising  advocate  of  Indian 
extermination  would  forget  in  their  presence  all  his  theo 
ries  about  the  ineradicable  cruelty  and  treachery  of  the 
race. 

Among  all  my  remembrances  of  Dakota,  there  is  one  that 
has  for  me  a  peculiar  and  serene  beauty. 

The  remembrance  of  one  of  those  wonderful  sunsets  in 
an  atmosphere  of  crystal  clearness.  A  young  moon  that 
the  red  sun  made  look  all  the  whiter.  The  shy  stars  com 
ing,  you  could  not  see  when,  into  the  faint  blue,  and  a  twi 
light  stillness.  In  front  of  a  school  house  a  ring  of  Indian 
children  playing  Jacob  and  Rachel.  I  can  see  now  the 
free,  unconscious  grace  of  their  motions,  and  hear  the  child 
ish  giggles  and  screams  of  laughter,  and  the  funny  little 
accent  with  which  they  shouted  "  Jakup,"  "  Rashel."" 

I  looked  at  them  and  thought  of  the  hideous  record  of 
unrighteous  greed  and  bloody  retaliation  that  makes  up  the 
sad  story  of  their  race — and  of  the  lives  that  lay  before 
these  children  that  they  thought  of  so  little.  Yet  to  look  at 
them  was  to  hope.  Mournful  and  oppressed  as  the  condi 
tion  of  their  race  is,  it  may  be  that  out  of  the  darkness  and 
the  bondage  "  a  little  child  shall  lead  them." 


